The town of Talkeetna, Alaska, is the gateway to Denali (formerly Mt. McKinley). I was lucky enough to do a flightseeing tour while there and will share those photos in a future post.

As of 2010, the population was 876. After walking through the town, I’m surprised it’s that high.

The area is mostly forest, so there’s a lot of timber:

A lovely quilt shop.

We had lunch here.

I’m guessing this place is condemned, or a great bargain.

Anyone remember Northern Exposure with John Corbett? The show’s town of Cicely was supposedly patterned after Talkeetna, but filming actually took place in Roslyn, Washington. Alaska would be too dark most of the year for filming.

I liked the colors and touches of whimsy a lot:

And once again we were surprised by the beautiful flower arrangements.

Looking at the photos now, I’m struck by how pristine the flowers are. We did see bees in Fairbanks–they were kind of a problem out on the deck during lunch–but no bugs. Probably too cold at night.

More next week.

So, the problem with WordPress and Flickr is still not resolved. I’m not thrilled that I can only upload one size (the other two sizes are way too small) but this will just motivate me to do a self-hosted blog. Finally!

I just couldn’t take that, Jackie. I remember photographers on a website I used to frequent where the Scandinavian photogs complained a lot that they only had one hour of sun on winter days! No wonder they paint their walls white. I would too.